At our recent New York Conference, Nicholas Felton, designer and creator of the annual infographic Feltron Report, shared the inspiration behind telling his life story through numbers, graphs, and charts.

Watch the video of his presentation below:

- Felton has been indexing the minutiae of his life for half a decade – from his daily personal interactions, to where and how many miles he’s traveled by foot/train/bike/car to how many vegetables he ate and of what variety.

– For his most recent report, Felton experimented with a new methodology: instead of relying on self-reporting, he asked nearly everyone he came in contact with – friends, family, his dentist, strangers he spoke with for 10 minutes or more – to fill out an online survey about their interaction. Of the more than 1000 people he asked to participate, 32% completed the extensive report about their moment with Felton, evaluating everything from what they did to his mood and demeanor.

– Felton’s reports are stunning experiments in tracking and quantifying experience; they serve as proof that even in the most quotidian details of our lives lie poignant patterns, progressions, and a kind of beauty worth noticing.